fights

Muhammad Ali just had a seventieth birthday celebration. He earned his fame by being a fighter not just in a boxing ring but in real life. In his real life fights it wasn't one on one in a ring, it was masses against one lone man. He fought racial discrimination, religious intolerance, commercial greed and ultimately the government in the country that was his by birth but not by custom or conscience.



I've had these kind of fights too, not as glorious or wide reaching but nonetheless tough ones. I've had the more mundane fights as well, for independence, social justice, better gender roles, bad days and against incompetence.

My parents and teachers told me often "don't fight". I'm still not sure what they had in mind. Were they counseling passive submission to all that life brings to me? Was it really "don't fight authority"?

Why fight?

At the primal level we all have a fight or flight response that kicks in when something threatening happens. We're wired to either run away or beat on the threat. Not very common occurrence for most of us. Our civilized lives keep the wild animals and wild people away most of the time. Not a whole lot of fighting required. Funny thing is we still have the reflex, even though we rarely use it as intended and don't expect to use it often. In the fight against natural threats, we've kind of won.

Fighting makes you feel bad

Nobody likes the huge adrenaline hit, racing heart, twitchy muscles, and fast breathing that comes with a fight. You don't feel too good afterward: sleepy, achy and kind of weak. Everybody knows this. So don't fight?



Reasons to fight

No, we still have to fight, maybe with less physical intensity than our ancestors but there are still things that require at least a threat of a fight. So what reasons are sufficient?


Wild animal attack
        Not a frequent event for most of us.
Marauding savages
        Time to move and get some new friends.

Aliens!
        OK, folks the only alien you're going to see is the one working on the rich guy's lawn. Don't fight him, he's just hungry. Better to fight the rich guy until he shows some kindness to the poor.

Injustice
         When someone takes what is not his, even if he rigged the laws to make it appear to be his, that's not right. We should fight to make it right.

Manipulation

  Most of all, the assumption of authority by those that don't use it for good. When the guys you are hanging with hurt people and make them less, time to leave, they're not your friends.

Jesus didn't tell the poor it was their fault and that they needed to fix their own problems, he told the rich, the powerful and the self-righteous to do that.

authority

au·thor·i·ty

1. The power or right to give orders, make decisions, and enforce obedience

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re·spon·si·bil·i·ty

1. The state or fact of having a duty to deal with something.

2. The state or fact of being accountable or to blame for something.
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ac·count·abil·i·ty

: the quality or state of being accountable; especially : an obligation or willingness to accept responsibility or to account for one's actions accountability

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Authority is one of a kind of power, it devolves from one of greater power, a sort of feudal hierarchy of might. It is done by commandment

Responsibility is a kind of accountability, it devolves from a delegation of accountability, usually because the delegator doesn't wish to be held accountable.

Both accountability and power are assumed, usually willingly and often voluntarily. They are democratic virtues. Sometimes, they are a burden to be carried for a time and then happily surrendered, as Cincinnatus. The tenure of responsibility and authority is left to the discretion of the overlord and are authoritarian values.

it is not meet that I should command in all things; for he that is compelled in all things, the same is a slothful and not a wise servant; wherefore he receiveth no reward.  ...  men should be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of their own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness;  For the power is in them, wherein they are agents unto themselves. -- Doctrine and Covenants 58

ye are free; ye are permitted to act for yourselves; for behold, God hath given unto you a knowledge and he hath made you free. He hath given unto you that ye might know good from evil, and he hath given unto you that ye might choose life or death; and ye can do good and be restored unto that which is good, or have that which is good restored unto you; or ye can do evil, and have that which is evil restored unto you. -- Helaman 14

 Man was also in the beginning with God. Intelligence, or the light of truth, was not created or made, neither indeed can be.  All truth is independent in that sphere in which God has placed it, to act for itself, as all intelligence also; otherwise there is no existence.  Behold, here is the agency of man, and here is the condemnation of man; because that which was from the beginning is plainly manifest unto them, and they receive not the light. And every man whose spirit receiveth not the light is under condemnation. Doctrine and Covenants 93

Do we have authority or priesthood power? Are we responsible or accountable? The power of agency is neither created nor made. Our accountability is in our wise use of agency. Neither is by delegation or commandment. At the existential level, we are plainly not responsible or authorized, we are accountable and powerful. However, we are not powerful merely to gratify our greed, our prejudices or whims: our power must be used for good (D&C 121:41) or it ceases to be. We are accountable before God for doing good.

Notions such as responsibility, authority and obedience have crept into our wisdom and speech from feudal sources in which a despot holding worldly power replaced a perfected being who was accountable, powerful and wise because he was good. These feudal concepts still cloud our vision of our purpose and divert us from holiness to submission to authority, or from accountability to responsibility and from agency to mimicry. It is time to put aside the lesser values and take up the greater values, eternity accepts nothing less. We don't train for 4-foot hurdles by practicing on 2-foot hurdles.

It's my birthday

January 14 is my alternate birthday. Why? Here is a story ...

Here is my story

Pretty - Ugly

 
Ugly is a word we use to think of ourselves  frequently. We also use "fat", "old", "stupid", and "dumb". We hear those words when we wake up, when we arrange our hair, when we brush our teeth, our friends use it, even we use it about our self,  its why we don't try to make a friend and it's what we are thinking about as we fall into sleep.

Semi-tragically, we can't all be ugly, fat, old, stupid and dumb. That is as impossible as all of being above average. Just doesn't work that way. ugly, fat, old, stupid and dumb are all relative ideas. It really has do with being "more ugly than him/her", there is no pure ugly.

Not much help? We have changed from plain ugly to "uglier than _______". Big deal!

No, it helps, really. Let's think about the scale from ugly to beautiful, or fat to skinny, or young to old, or stupid to smart. Who makes these scales? We can't go to the bureau of standards and find the beauty-ugly scale in a box. It's really just a judgement call, an opinion.

When it comes to opinions there just two: mine and somebody else's. If we spend our life reacting to somebody else's opinions we'll just go crazy. It's easy for someone to make judgements about you, it costs them nothing. We bear the consequences, not them. Generally, it's just a bad idea to give the opinions of others the power to control our choices.

 Ask yourself, "Am I ugly?" Whats the answer? Remember there is no pure ugly so your answer has to be "no".  So maybe its just that you're uglier than Angelina Jolie?

What about "I'm uglier than Angelina"? How do you know? Better hair? Straighter nose? Taller? Slimmer? Isn't that just wishing you are something which you are not? That's not beautiful or gracious. What is inherently uglier about a rounded nose versus a long straight one? Is tall and slim always more beautiful than short and fat? (look at Rubens' portraits of women. He thought they had great beauty and they are a bit fat by today's standards)


Was he wrong?

So its all relative, nobody knows and its all a fraud. You are beautiful, strong, smart and graceful; just act the way you want to be and be the way you act.

What do you think?

You're only pretty as you feel
Only pretty as you feel inside
You're only pretty as you feel
Just as pretty as you feel inside

When you wake up in the morning
Comb your hair
Rub some sleep from your eye
Look inside your mirror
Don't give vanity a second chance
No, no, no
Beauty's only skin deep
It goes just so far 'cause
You're only pretty as you feel
Just as pretty as you feel inside
You're only pretty as you feel inside

Now you're feelin' good
Now you're feelin' pretty
Now you're feelin' good
Now you're ready to face the world girl
Go out there 'n' knock 'em silly girl
Go out there 'n' show 'em how to thrill
'Cause you're only pretty as you feel
Only pretty as you feel

Beauty isn't merely pretty, or perfect, or attractive. It includes harmony, grace, dignity, confidence and the love that shines from inside you to light your world. We can't fix our nose (rhinoplasty hurts, a lot), grow six inches taller or even do much about our shape (you can lose weight and tone muscle but your genes determine where the fat comes off first and last, which may not agree with your plan, so if you're 38-38-42 you might get to 35-34-38, but not to 36- 30-36). You can however become more confident, dignified, and loving. Work on what you can improve.

Take some risks.

Find your skin.

Looking into the pit

I have stage fright. I didn't think I still did. I thought I had left it behind with the girls I never asked out, the journeys not taken and the paths never chosen. Nope.

Some of you know I've been taking weekly music lessons, the over-the-top gift from mdw, who undoubtedly was as frustrated with my directionless hours with guitar as I was. So now, I've got direction but at a cost. My teacher (above) tells me the next step is public performance. Really public. Not invite the family and close friends but a real public venue. Scary. Stand-up with a band and play scary.


I am a mixed up bag of talents: comfortable in harmony or music theory, no songs memorized, quick to learn progressions, still struggling with finger position: I can reach four frets at the low end of the neck (I need five) but with fingers too fat at the bridge end. Kind of like skating in gravel.

I'm not feeling ready but I want to do it. Really, I've had enough practice playing the fool, looking silly should be no challenge. My goal is to do it about a month from now. Maybe something bluesy.

Trouble in Mind

D7 D7 D7 A7 D7 A7 Trouble in mind, Lord I'm blue D7 G7 But I won't be blue al-ways D7 B7 E7 A7 D7 The sun is gonna shine in my door, shine in my back door someday    D7 lick (G G# A7) I'm gonna lay, lay my head On that lonesome railroad line And let the 2:19 train ease my troubled mind Trouble in mind, well Lord I'm blue now I won't be blue al-ways The sun is gonna shine in my door, shine in my back door someday    instrumental break I'm going down, goin' down to the river I'm going to bring some wine that I can share And if these blues don't leave me, Lord, I'll have to ride away from here Trouble in mind, trouble in mind I'm blue now But I won't be blue always And that sun's gonna shine in my, lord, shine in my back door someday I'm all alone - I'm alone at midnight And the lamp is burning low I've never had so much trouble, in my whole life ever before Trouble in mind, Lord I'm blue now But I won't be blue always And that wind's gonna come - it's gonna blow my blues away...

Chords: D7 G7 B7 E7 A7 G#7 D lick (G)(G#)A7 e |-5--3--7--7--5---4------------------------ B |-7--3--7--9--5---4------------------------ G |-5--4--8--7--6---5----7---7---7----------- D |-7--3--7--9--5---4---7-7-6-6-5-5-4-------- A |-5--5--9--7--7---6------------------------ E |----3--7-----5---4-----------------3-4-5--

[to be continued]

Folk-rock

It's pretty much a dead genre now. That's kind of inevitable since the songs are all traditional, non-copywrited, or public stuff. No producer wants to spend much recording or publishing them. It wasn't that way in the middle 60s. There was huge cadre of folk trained musicians that had a chance to go from starving folkie to wealthy rocker, based on performance pay. It's one of the hidden reasons that this was such a creative, productive period in American music: the performers got the cash.

In my musical journey this is where I started.

Let Me In http://youtu.be/9-WB-Ip_37c  this version didn't make it past the censors, can you tell me why?

Let Me In Live performance, censors no longer cared, http://youtu.be/DiGq22ZnF0Y  a year later

Questions, http://youtu.http://youtu.be/zDjmmCvTH7obe/zDjmmCvTH7o

Spanish Harlem http://youtu.be/szvM7xJ6ql4

Folk rock was a happy blend of socially conscious protest and a good back beat. Folk music could be awfully whiny and even distressing, but folk-rock at least had a good rhythm and often more interesting harmony than the back-country arrangements that folk used. Finally though its hybrid nature killed it: the folk purists hated its musical innovations and the rock purists hadn't listened to the word as a message anyway.

Music - the seduction

I thought I was pretty much normal when I was in fifth and sixth grade. I listened to top forty music on the radio. That was 61/62 the music was Chubby Checker, Del Shannon, Everly Brothers,.
 
Runaway  was a favorite,

as was Locomotion (Little Eva)  - strong backbeat I-IV-V stuff. I learned the Twist.

Green Onions  and  

 
Telstar  the next year. Typical.1963 was more of same for seventh grade.

Louie, Louie ,

Surf City 

and Surfing USA     I didn't think so but it was all music made by a formula. It's purpose was to make money. Content didn't matter as long as the censors didn't flip-out. Fun stuff but it's hard to be passionate about.

Eighth grade was a little better starting with  

I Want to Hold Your Hand  and  

Twist and Shout , familiar songs but the performance was better. Then at the end of the year

it started with the Kinks, You Really Got Me   This was a raw performance, harmonically interesting, if predictable in content. (love sick boy)

Next year much better.

 
The Beatles were good, but the Stones played real music. Here's a sample there was real depth that year  . So far, I found out commercial rock wasn't rock and roll at all.

66-67 (14-16)








Started hearing something really different at at church dances (we had live music every other month in those days, mostly high school kids in a band). Got to know some of them. They were talking about other bands performing in the area but getting no radio time. I started buying vinyl.

Great Society

Great Society  (you get a star if you knew the song title without looking before the halfway break)

Steve Miller

 








Jefferson Airplane

Country Joe & The Fish

I snuck out to a few performances that summer

Sons of Champlin 

Frumious Bandersnatch

The Golliwogs

Santana Blues Band First seen in a store parking lot on a semi-trailer! (this recording is 2 years later)

That was it I was hooked